Mr. Li Shengyu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Guangdong’s Yangxi County, was arrested by officers from Xitou Town Police Station and Yangjiang City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in 2011. They failed to arrest Mr. Li’s wife, Ye Henglian. The incident forced Ms. Ye to leave home for an extended time in order to avoid police harassment. In a secret trial in March 2012, Mr. Li was sentenced to five years and subsequently transferred to Yangjiang Prison.

Mr. Li Shengyu Arrested

At 4 p.m. on November 1st, 2011, eight police officers dispatched by the Yangjiang City and Yangxi County 610 Offices broke into Mr. Li’s home and arrested him.

Mr. Li’s wife, Ms. Ye Henglian (also a practitioner), was returning home from shopping when someone told her that her husband had been arrested. Ms. Ye called and asked Mr. Li’s two sisters to verify the information. When they arrived at their brother’s house, the sisters saw Mr. Li had been tied up, he could not move or sit down, and his face was bleeding.

Some of the police officers waited for Mr. Li’s wife to return. By 6 p.m., they realized that she was not coming and left.

Three days later, Mr. Li’s family learned that he was detained in Yangxi County Police Station. The next day, they went there to demand his release, but they were not even allowed to see him.

The family later learned that the leader of the eight officers that made the arrest was Zhang Eryou. Zhang was the head of Xitou Town Police a decade ago, and he later became a detention centre director. It's not clear what his current job is.

In December 2011, when his family went to see Mr. Li in the police station, they were told that he had been sent to Yangxi County Detention.

In early March 2012, Mr. Li’s daughter and two sisters finally saw him. Mr. Li was very emaciated and weak, and he had to walk by holding onto the wall to keep from falling. Mr. Li called out from a window and told his daughter that he would be tried in a one-on-one court procedure by Judge Huang Ying on March 13th.

During the next visit on April 9th, family members were shocked by Mr. Li's appearance. His face was covered in blue and black bruises, a front tooth was missing, his lips were swollen, and within one month his hair had turned completely white. When they asked what had happened, he reluctantly said, “Please do not ask me any questions about this.” It was obvious that he had been brutalised for telling his family during their previous visit how he had been abused and tortured.

Several days later, his family met with civil affairs judge Hu Ruqing of Yangxi County Court. After hearing about Mr. Li’s arrest and the brutality he was subjected to in the detention centre, the sympathetic Ms. Hu expressed her surprise and said, “Li Shengyu being beaten in detention is a serious issue. Let me look into this.” A few days later when the family met with Ms. Hu again, however, her demeanour had completely changed. It was obvious from her expression that she was being pressured.

In May, Mr. Li's family learned that he had been sentenced to five years in prison by Yangxi County Court. The court never informed the family of the hearing. Mr. Li appealed to Yangjiang City Intermediate Court.

When Mr. Li’s wife, Ms. Ye Henglian, and his nephew went to Yangxi Detention to visit him on August 3rd, 2012, the director told them he had already been sent to Yangjiang Prison.

On August 10th, Ms. Ye went to Yangjiang Prison and confirmed that he was there.

Ms. Ye has remained away from home since her husband was arrested on November 1st, 2011. She has no steady income. Since she has no ID, she has to take short term, temporary jobs that do not require one. On August 23rd, she was followed by three persons from Yangjiang 610 Office, but she managed to get away from them.

Mr. Li’s sisters and mother (in her 80s) went to Yangjiang Prison on October 21st, to visit him, but they were not allowed to. Instead, the prison gave them a phone number (86-662-6380610) and told them to call ahead of time the next time to see if they could see him.